Your car stereo is one of those things that you take for granted until something goes horribly awry. When you get in your vehicle you expect to be able to turn it on and your favorite station or CD will start like it always does and sound good. If it doesn't go on or if what you hear is different than usual (in a bad way), maybe you have a blown or partially blown speaker. Let's investigate!
- How a speaker works. This is the short version. A speaker consists of a circular magnet surrounding a coil that is attached to a cone-shaped diaphragm. Current goes through the coil of the speaker. Current is made, in this case, by an amplifier in your stereo. That current alternates at a frequency that is the same as the sound waves that generated it. That induces an alternating magnetic field in the coil. The polarity of the magnetic field of the coil switches positive to negative, so it is attracted to and repelled by the permanent magnet. The coil vibrates, then the cone vibrates and what you have is a facsimile of the original sound.
- How to tell if you speaker is blown by listening. Now, there are extremes of "blown" speakers. A totally blown speaker means that the cone has separated from the coil. The force of the sound wave "blows" them apart -- hence, the term. If this has happened, you will notice there is no sound at normal or low levels, or distorted buzz-like sounds at higher levels. Make sure, if you have an equalizer, that you put all the levels to "0" and the balance to the middle. This helps you to hear things better. If you hear music, but it is heavily distorted, then what you have is a partially blown speaker. This means that cone is pretty close to being totally separated from the coil. In all practicality, it pretty much means the same thing as if your speaker were totally blown. If you partially tear your Achilles tendon, you are just as injured as if you totally tear it. I should know, I'm a doctor. Not really.
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Author: Harry McCaul